Citizen Smith

Reservoirs are experiencing severe water shortages, rivers are drying up, glaciers are shrinking, and water is scarce for most farms in the West and Northwest at the start of summer. Mother Nature is not happy.

The latest Covid vaccination numbers are in and Portland is over 70 percent fully vaccinated. But the city must wait for the rest of the state to catch up in numbers before fully opening. Is that fair? Is it also necessary to mandate mask wearing at this stage of the post-pandemic?

After a riot police officer was indicted for allegedly assaulting a young woman with a baton, 50 of his members resigned in protest. So what now for Portland? More riots and violence? Or will there be peace in the city this summer?

The indictment of a Portland police officer for assaulting a female protester during an August protest displays in full video why an overhaul of police training and riot response is needed in this country. Putin is challenged by an American reporter with tough questions, and that was the biggest news that came out of the Biden-Putin summit.

HALF-CAST Host Ray Lane drops into the Citizen Smith show all the way from Scotland.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has enacted emergency measures to combat the growing drought problem in Central Oregon, which is only getting worse for farmers. NATO and G7 countries have recognized and taken action to combat the growing security and political threat to Democracy by China and Russia.

Bitcoins are all the rage in the crypto world and investors are lining up. But what is this world of digital investment and how does it work. Michael Van Sant joins the show to talk about it. He's the technical director of TalkcastPDX and an active investor in bitcoins. Also, a movie review of "Cruella."

Dave Dahl discusses the non-profit organization Constructing Hope, which assists ex-convicts and minorities in learning a trade in construction. China is battling a highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in the city of Guangzhou. Vice President Kamala Harris sends the wrong message to Central American migrants trying to enter the country from Mexico.

The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece that presented a strong case that the coronavirus behind the pandemic has a genetic footprint of Covid-19 showing it's not a natural coronavirus and was manufactured in a lab -- and that lab was likely the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

Will Governor Kate Brown allow Oregonians free to live a normal life again? No mask mandates, no limited capacity in restaurants and indoor events, no social distancing in public places anymore. We shall see. And a call from London by guest host Ray Lane to talk about the hassles of international travel to adhere to pandemic guidelines.